West Africa: Ecowas Cautions Against Protracted Dialogue On Mali

The ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Mrs. Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman, says it would be dangerous to rely on dialogue as the sole strategy for resolving the crisis in Mali sparked by the takeover of the north of the country by Islamists and secessionists.

"While dialogue remains the preferred of the two options being deployed by the region to resolve the problem, there is increasing evidence that some of the elements involved in the crisis are not amenable to dialogue," the Commissioner told the visiting Commander of the United States African Command, General Carter Ham, at the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja.

Regional leaders had in response to the March 2012 coup that deposed former President Amadou Toumani Toure, which precipitated the current crisis adopted a two- pronged strategy of dialogue and the possible deployment of troops to resolve the accompanying political crisis and help the country restore its territorial integrity.

The Commissioner said it was in recognition of the primacy of dialogue that regional leaders appointed one of their peers President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso as mediator and who has remained engaged with some of the elements in the north of the country that have indicated their preference for dialogue in resolving the situation in the northern Mali.

She, however, warned that the region will not tolerate a prolonged or open-ended negotiation, and therefore urged the International community to work together to secure the UN Security Council Chapter Seven mandate requested by West Africa, for the deployment of an African-led force, to assist Mali recover its occupied territory.

The mandate, she said, will provide the region and the international community with the option of the use of force that can be exercised should dialogue fail to resolve the crisis and help the country on its road to sustainable democracy.

AllAfrica publishes around 2,000 reports a day from more than 130 news organizations and over 200 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Related

Follow AllAfrica

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa - aggregating, producing and distributing 2000 news and information items daily from over 130 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Lagos, Monrovia, Nairobi and Washington DC.